Undervalued thriller.

A lone gunman has his sights set on a sell-out crowd at a championship
football game. Captain Peter Holly leads the desperate fight to try and
stop the maniac from picking people off at will. Perched high on top of
of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the gunman has his pick of the
targets, the Mayor-the President-or merely the innocent? Either way he
has to be stopped before all hell breaks loose.

Much like Roller-coaster a year later, Two-Minute Warning is wrongly
lumped in with the disaster movie genre that flooded the 1970s, and
just like Roller-coaster, Two-Minute Warning is an excellently taut
thriller. The build up is paced to precision, all characters are
introduced to us to give us something to associate with should things
go very wrong. As this is happening we get little POV snippets of our
killer, accompanied by Charles Fox's harshly impacting music, the
killer is never seen but we feel the dread, the impending sense of
murder is a constant presence.

Once we are at the game and the authorities are aware that a sniper is
on the roof, the film shifts up a gear and lays on the suspense thick
and heavy. Captain Holly {Charlton Heston} is joined by the SWAT team,
led by the cool and serious Sgt. Chris Button {John Cassavetes}, whilst
stadium security manager Sam McKeever {Martin Balsam} prays that
disaster can be averted. Then the final third of the picture is a
ripper-heart pounding stuff, a final third that rewards the viewers
patience for having invested in the film and its characters. Filling
out the cast is Gena Rowlands, Jack Klugman {brilliant interplay with
Mitch Ryan's priest}, Beau Bridges, Walter Pidgeon and David Jansen.
Two-Minute Warning is a quality thriller that is sadly undervalued on
the IMDb site, go on, give it a go and you might just be pleasantly
surprised. 7.5/10

Footnote: I should point out that my thoughts are on the original
unedited cut of this film, I have never seen the watered down TV cut
and have no plans to ever do so.

Was the above review useful to you?

15 out of 16 people found the following review useful:

A faceless gunman shoots innocent bystanders in a tower overlooking a Los Angeles football stadium

Thrilling and entertaining disaster movie but full clichés and
stereotypes with enjoyable performances from Charlton Heston and John
Cassavetes . This catastrophe movie blends action , intrigue , disaster
spectacle, suspense and emotional byplay . ¨Two-minute warning¨ was a
successful film that grossed at box office . A psychotic sniper
wielding a rifle with telescopic sight plans a massacre during a major
championship game . The two protagonists , the police Captain Peter
Holly (Charlton Heston) and SWAT commander Sergeant Button (John
Cassavetes), learn of the plot and spend most of their time devising
various ways for avoid to psychopath sniper carries out his aims : a
massive killing spree in Los Angeles football stadium filled to
capacity . As our heroes get stuck in the stadium before it blows up
and when slaughter takes place they go into action ; as they pay
tribute to policemen . There takes place a struggle between two forces
, the cops and the sinister assassin and ultimately erupts when the
crowd turns almost effortlessly and devours itself in a climax of panic
.

Exciting film that contains noisy action , unsettling scenes , thrills
, emotion and turns out to be pretty entertaining . This formula
suspense movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the
undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ ,
¨Roller coaster¨ and many others ; this formula disaster movie was
widely developed by Irwin Allen , previously winner of numerous Oscars
for ¨Poseidon¨ until the failures as ¨Beyond Poseidon¨, ¨Swarm¨ and
¨When the time ran out¨ . ¨Two-minute warning¨ results to be an
intriguing and suspenseful film , there was a later version released
that had footage not shown in theaters , in the original theatrical
version, the sniper's motives were not known. In the later television
version, it was revealed that the attack was done to cover an art
robbery next door . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the
7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a strong acting
by starring trio Charlton Heston , John Cassavetes and Martin Balsam .
Succeeds in combining various talented actors , an all star cast came
together that tie for film's top casting honors ; furthermore a
top-notch secondary casting such as Gina Rowlands, Beau Bridges , Jack
Klugman , Marilyn Hasset , Pamela Bellwood , Mitch Ryan , Brock Peters,
David Janssen and Walter Pidgeon as a pickpocket who formerly
co-starred in 'Harry in Your Pocket' , a film about pickpocket s. This
edgy , paranoid film was deemed too violent to show intact on broadcast
television, so they re-wrote the story and added a heist element , the
re-written material minimized both the main storyline and the subplots
. Colorful and gripping photography in Panavision by Gerard Hirschfeld
, including persistent high-angle shots , subjective camera-work and
use of long lenses . Intriguing and atmospheric score by Charles Fox .
This big-budgeted disaster movie was professionally though coldly
directed by Larry Peerce , an usual TV movies director . Rating : Good
and entertaining , it's a fairly watchable disaster movie.

Was the above review useful to you?

14 out of 16 people found the following review useful:

Not a far fetched film after all!

Two minute warning is A crime thriller-disaster film, laden with an all
star cast with Charlton Heston as the head of the LA Police Department
and John Cassavettes as the leader of the SWAT team, at a major-league
football stadium (the LA Coliseum) filled with 91,000 fans during a
championship game between Los Angeles and Baltimore, and an anonymous
psychotic sniper with a high-powered hunting rifle perched on the top
of the stadium's scoreboard. This cliffhanger brought suspense to
film-goers and mass panic among the spectators as they stampeded in the
film's finale. in light of recent events such as 'the Washington sniper
' this film proves that the incident is Not a far fetched after all!

Was the above review useful to you?

16 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

A bleak and cynical, yet still gripping thriller

A very bleak and cynical 70's all-star cast suspense thriller about a
crazed motiveless sniper who for no rationale reason decides to blow
away a bunch of spectators in a crowded stadium during a football game.
It's up to ramrod police chief Charlton Heston, assisted by coldly
efficient SWAT team commander John Cassavetes and antsy stadium manager
Martin Balsam, to stop the mysterious lunatic before it's too late.
Among the many folks in jeopardy are Beau Bridges as an unemployed dad
who's trying to show his wife Pamela Bellwood and kids a good time,
David Janssen and Gena Rowlands as a pair of middle-aged lovers, Jon
Korkes as a pathetic jerk whose date with the lovely Marilyn Hassett
goes disastrously awry, Mitchell Ryan as a gentle priest, Walter Pigeon
as an elderly pickpocket, and Jack Klugman as a hapless compulsive
gambler who's bet what little money he has left on the big game.

Director Larry Peerce relates the tightly streamlined plot in a
fiercely stark and unsentimental manner, artfully using subjective
camera-work, long lenses, and high angle shots to stoke the
gut-wrenching tension to a nerve-jangling fever pitch. The set-up of
said suspense tends to be a bit laborious at times and the background
exposition on the many secondary characters is likewise a tad
extraneous (and even a bit tedious, too), but the final climactic
eruption of raw violence and sheer pandemonium (the crowd explodes in a
frenzied blind panic when the sniper starts shooting them) is both
gripping and disturbing in comparable measure. But what really gives
this film an extra unnerving edge is its bitter cynicism and
surprisingly upfront amorality, especially when it comes to the
frequently brutish tactics used by Cassavetes to nail the sniper. The
scene where Cassavetes gives an innocent spectator a severe beat-down
and doesn't even apologize to the poor guy after-wards is particularly
unpleasant and upsetting. This guy is the iron lung of law enforcement
who's portrayed with a wired intensity and seething psychosis by
Cassevetes that's genuinely frightening to behold. Whether intended or
not, it's this nice nihilistic blurring the line between the cops and
the sniper which in turn makes "Two-Minute Warning" a distinctly 70's
kind of gritty and absorbing dead serious thriller.

Was the above review useful to you?

16 out of 20 people found the following review useful:

Another so-called "what if" disaster movie of the '70s

Like Black Sunday, which came out a year after this movie, "Two-Minute
Warning" was billed as a disaster movie that used the "what if" basis
of other genre examples of the '70s (and I'm including "Towering
Inferno" and "Earthquake" along with the "mad bomber" movies like
"Rollercoaster" and "Juggernaut"). "Black Sunday," "Two-Minute Warning"
and "Rollercoaster" are really the three most believable now--the
disasters are man-made and show us how vulnerable we really are (I, for
one, am praying members of terrorists group don't watch the movie
"Rollercoaster"). In Two-Minute Warning, a sniper with no apparent
motive climbs to the top of an LA football stadium and starts shooting
at the two-minute warning. It is possible the sniper had political
assassination on his mind as the President was scheduled to come to the
game. But it's never really explained, which bothered many critics
including Roger Ebert. But after the events in the DC area in the fall
of 2002 (which I lived through--I'll never forget having to pace back
and forth quickly while pumping gas, to avoid being a target), snipers
are never really understood--they're psychotic, plain and simple.
"Targets," the early Peter Bogdonavich film, which Two-Minute Warning
reminded me of, spent a good part of the movie explaining the
alienation of its sniper. To a degree---you saw his family, his
interaction with his wife, and saw what appeared to be his isolation.
It's certainly not a justification for killing innocent motorists, but
the film did show his face. "Two-Minute Warning" doesn't even show the
face of the sniper until the end. The point of the filmmakers is clear:
The sniper is unknown and deadly. This movie goes a little over-the-top
in the gratuitous violence (unlike most other '70s disaster movies),
but is absolutely suspenseful and the acting is very good (especially
by John Cassavettes as the leader of the SWAT team). Gena Rowlands,
Cassavettes' wife and muse, also appears as a spectator.

Was the above review useful to you?

12 out of 15 people found the following review useful:

A very likable and suspenseful film!

As a fan of suspense, I definitely have rated this film as a classic
edge-of-your seat cliffhanger. It contained all of the elements of a
real-life thriller. The actual mounting of the suspense itself up until the
end is the most rewarding effect this film possesses. As frightening and
terrifying as the climax was, it nevertheless demonstrated how the actions
of one individual can cause a catastrophe to unfold.

Was the above review useful to you?

13 out of 18 people found the following review useful:

Terror At the Coliseum

The Seventies was the decade of the disaster film, but oddly enough
Charlton Heston has never been credit for being King of the genre. We
know Heston for his work in big budget spectacles like The Ten
Commandments and Ben-Hur, but he's probably appeared in more disaster
films than any other player.

Think about it, Heston during the seventies starred in Earthquake, Grey
Lady Down, Skyjacked, Airport 75 and this film Two Minute Warning. All
of them with a cast of well known players put in harm's way of a
terrible act.

In this case it's some psycho freak with a rifle with telescopic sight
who decides he's going to take out a whole load of people at a
championship football game at the Los Angeles Coliseum. As in all
disaster films the guessing is as to who among the cast will survive
until the end of the movie.

We're not sure what the freak's motivation is, we do know that as the
film opens for target practice he shoots down one of a pair of
bicyclers driving past his motel. On some level I really don't care.
The time for societal soul searching stops when the bullets begin to
fire. After that it's only one thing, get him.

Charlton Heston is the police captain at the precinct where the
Coliseum is located and John Cassavetes is the SWAT commander assigned
to kill or capture. By the way it is also shown earlier Cassavetes SWAT
team actually taking a suspect alive, so it's not that they are just
looking for an opportunity to use the weapons.

Among the crowd at the football game there are some performances I
especially liked, one of them being Beau Bridges as a young father out
with his family for the game who spots the sniper and tries to warn the
already informed police. Also Mitchell Ryan and Jack Klugman have some
nice scenes as a priest who happens to be sitting next to a gambling
addict who literally has his life riding on the point spread.

Two Minute Warning is not the best or worst of the Seventies disaster
films. The cast is competent enough, a bunch of real professionals
without a sour note among them.

Terror is real, an evil unto itself without reason and Two Minute
Warning dramatically drives that point home.

Was the above review useful to you?

16 out of 24 people found the following review useful:

Good sniping fun

The sheer atmosphere of this film tells the tale right off the bat. First
off all, we see the sniper shoot a man riding a bike for no reason. This
is
to show us that this man is really nothing but a psychopath, and we have no
choice but to hate him for the remainder of the film.

Charleton Heston, Hollywood's most conservative actor (my kind of guy!)
decides to try to take the sniper out when he sneaks into a football game
and spend the majority of the film looking at people through his rifle
scope. With the help of John Cassavettes and his team of SWAT supermen,
the
cops try to figure some gameplan to stop the sniper before he opens fire on
the crowd.

The film itself is uneven, (don't even try to watch the tv version) but you
will be cheering for the good guys when the two minute warning is called.
By the way, for the reviewer who dissed this movie two reviews ahead of me,
quit reading to far into things! The sniper is a cold blooded killer; from
when we see him shoot the bicyclist we know he has a compeupance in store
for him. I don't want to feel sorry for him!

Anyway, this is a decent movie to watch on a slow day. By the way, for all
the people who thought that slasher movies invented first person
perspective
camera work of seeing what the killer sees, obviously they never saw this
movie. I think this was the first time in Hollywood the camera tried to
show such a perspective.

Was the above review useful to you?

6 out of 7 people found the following review useful:

Flawed But Interesting

This is truly amazing. A review I wrote for this movie back in 1999 as
a response to the ravings of "Nick Potter" who headlined his "Putrid
Propaganda" and loaded it with uncalled for invective aimed at Charlton
Heston because of that reviewers left-wing perspective, was deleted
because someone filed an abuse report. And yet the one I replied to is
still there all these years later, which should tell you something
about the peculiar standards of this place. I am submitting it again
since I think people should see for themselves that what I wrote back
then as a normal response to a left-wing extremist's injection of his
personal hatred of Charlton Heston into his review, was not the one
that merited an abuse report.

ORIGINAL 1999 Review.

The previous reviewer completely misses the point. The reason why the
sniper in "Two Minute Warning" isn't given any lines or isn't shown to
have humanity is because what this man is doing is a crazy, psychotic
act with no rational purpose to it, and that is what makes him a more
terrifying threat (I can't begin to imagine how watered down the threat
would seem if I ever saw the alternate version that made him part of a
rational plot) and makes the story suspenseful. Only those with a
visceral hatred of Charlton Heston because of his off-camera politics
would try to read anything else into that (it is amusing that Heston
has to suffer this from so many liberal reviewers while Hollywood
liberals like Paul Newman never have to worry about conservatives
reading between the lines of every film they're in).

That said, "Two Minute Warning" ultimately is flawed because it does
have a less than stellar script when it comes to the supporting
characters, not very interesting performances from a largely TV cast
(Jack Klugman, David Janssen) and also the sense of realism is hurt by
the fact that the NFL didn't give permission to use the names of real
football teams thus creating too much of a sense of artificialness with
people just rooting for a generic "Baltimore" and "Los Angeles". "Black
Sunday" works a lot better in that regard because it made sure to get
permission from the NFL and do actual filming during the Super Bowl.

Was the above review useful to you?

11 out of 17 people found the following review useful:

Closer to reality now

A determined sniper is discovered by a TV crew in a scoreboard tower at
a football game and how will police deal with the situation. The
placement of S.W.A.T. sharpshooters on the light towers to take out the
gunman would be the logical response since sneaking up on the guy might
provoke him to shoot into the crowd.

I find this film to be a bit slow as stock characters are introduced
and placed at the game. Once the sniper takes his position and becomes
a threat, this film turns exciting, gritty and violent as shots are
exchanged.

The fact that the shooter is faceless adds to the scariness of the
situation. Who is this guy and what is his major malfunction?

The recent events in the Washington D.C. area add an air of reality to
the movie. Previously no one would have believed that people were
capable of such an ugly crime.

"Two-Minute Warning", aside from the formula melodrama, is a creepy
thriller that might be a little too real now.